to that effect—­a great curiosity.  A few days before his death he was very merry; it being his honour’s birthday, he called my grandfather in—­God bless him!—­to drink the company’s health, and filled a bumper himself, but could not carry it to his head, on account of the great shake in his hand; on this he cast his joke, saying, ’What would my poor father say to me if he was to pop out of the grave, and see me now?  I remember when I was a little boy, the first bumper of claret he gave me after dinner, how he praised me for carrying it so steady to my mouth.  Here’s my thanks to him—­a bumper toast.’  Then he fell to singing the favourite song he learned from his father—­for the last time, poor gentleman—­he sung it that night as loud and as hearty as ever, with a chorus: 

He that goes to bed, and goes to bed sober, Falls as the leaves do, falls as the leaves do, and dies in October; ’But he that goes to bed, and goes to bed mellow, Lives as he ought to do, lives as he ought to do, and dies an honest fellow.

Sir Patrick died that night:  just as the company rose to drink his health with three cheers, he fell down in a sort of fit, and was carried off; they sat it out, and were surprised, on inquiry in the morning, to find that it was all over with poor Sir Patrick.  Never did any gentleman live and die more beloved in the country by rich and poor.  His funeral was such a one as was never known before or since in the county!  All the gentlemen in the three counties were at it; far and near, how they flocked! my great-grandfather said, that to see all the women, even in their red cloaks, you would have taken them for the army drawn out.  Then such a fine whillaluh! [See glossary 3] you might have heard it to the farthest end of the county, and happy the man who could get but a sight of the hearse!  But who’d have thought it?  Just as all was going on right, through his own town they were passing, when the body was seized for debt—­a rescue was apprehended from the mob; but the heir, who attended the funeral, was against that, for fear of consequences, seeing that those villains who came to serve acted under the disguise of the law:  so, to be sure, the law must take its course, and little gain had the creditors for their pains.  First and foremost, they had the curses of the country:  and Sir Murtagh Rackrent, the new heir, in the next place, on account of this affront to the body, refused to pay a shilling of the debts, in which he was countenanced by all the best gentlemen of property, and others of his acquaintance; Sir Murtagh alleging in all companies that he all along meant to pay his father’s debts of honour, but the moment the law was taken of him, there was an end of honour to be sure.  It was whispered (but none but the enemies of the family believe it) that this was all a sham seizure to get quit of the debts which he had bound himself to pay in honour.